PERMFILE60920

• Permit No: C1981033
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 2/1/1981
• Doc Name: Permit
• Section_Exhibit Name: 1981 ORIGINAL APPLICATION
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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2.04.5(1)(b)
The continental and marine shales and sandstones underlying
the coal bearing zone on the property have a potential
recoverable ground water supply of zero (0) to 600 acre-feet
of water per square mile, depending on strata thickness.
In more than SO exploratory drill holes on the ARCO property,
there is no indication of water in the P seam. There are no
known springs issuing from the F seam on the north side of the
property, the supposed exit point for any F seam waters due
to the stratigraphic dip. Thus, this coal seam does not appear
to be an aquifer.
There are 77 known springs or seeps occurring above the F seam.
Most springs appear to issue from the valley sides roughly at
the contact of the bedrock with the thin alluvial cover of the
valley bottom. A few issue from sandstone ledges a few feet
up the valley wall above the soil or alluvial cover. Production
varies from 0.1 to as much as 50 gallons per minute with 45%
of the measured springs producing less than one gallon per
minute with 12~ producing from 10 to 50 gallons per minute.
Production apparently decreases from a total of 300 gallons
per minute in the early summer to less than 200 gallons per
minute by fall. Recharge to the springs appears to come from
snow melt. The Mesaverde sandstones and the fracture system
within these sandstones is the apparent aquifer. The outcrop-
ping rocks consist of interbedded lenticular sandstones and
shales of stream channel and floodplain origin. The sandstones,
which have low permeability, act as the aquifers, while the
shale layers act as barriers to vertical migration of waters.
Thus, each sandstone is a potential aquifer which may or may
not be perched by the underlying shale members. Perched water
tables or aquifers appear to be the rule.
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